When it comes to building websites and applications, English is often the default language for coding. While using English keys can make implementation quick and convenient, it can also bring some unique challenges when getting started with internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) to reach a global audience. 

Many companies focus on launching English-language products first, only considering internationalization and localization when they’re ready to expand. But that’s when it’s already too late. Proactive planning avoids painful rework and ensures a seamless experience—for both developers and end-users. Companies that treat internationalization and localization as a key action item rather than an afterthought already have everything they need for rapid scalability and global reach right from the start.

 

What’s the difference between internationalization, translation, and localization?

While the terms internationalization, translation, and localization are often used interchangeably, they actually refer to vastly different processes. Internationalization involves designing and building the software in a way that allows developers to adapt it to various languages and cultures. Translation is the process of converting text from one language to another so the meaning remains accurate and understandable. And localization takes this a step further—adapting tone, formatting, and cultural nuances so the end product feels native to users. Localization takes both internationalization and translation into account, including tone, date and time conventions, currencies, symbols, and even local design preferences, so that your products meet every user’s needs. 

 

What are the biggest challenges of localization?

Many business leaders recognize the value of localization without fully realizing what it involves. When developers are tasked with implementing localization, they usually understand that it goes beyond just translation quality—it’s also about maintaining a smooth user experience across multiple languages and regions. Developers play a key role in successful localization by building flexible, scalable systems that can handle linguistic, cultural, and technical variability without breaking. 

Key challenges include:

  • Text expansion and contraction: English strings may grow or shrink when translated into other languages. For example, translating English into Spanish could expand the translated strings by 15-30% by some estimates; other languages, such as German, may expand by 20-50%, or even longer in some instances. Developers must take this into account by building flexible UI components so that key elements like buttons, labels, and menus don’t break.
  • Internationalization structure: Other languages have different grammar rules than English (e.g., plural rules, gendered language, word order). These instances require context to avoid misinterpretation. To address this, developers must integrate i18n libraries to handle these rules automatically.
  • Contextual content: English words tend to be concise, which means they can be linguistically ambiguous or carry multiple meanings; a key like button.close could use the word close to mean “shut” or "nearby.” Developers play a key role in ensuring successful localization by providing embedded instructions and visual context to translators.
  • Speed and cost constraints: Fixing hard-coded strings, redesigning UI elements, restructuring files, managing content, and deploying localization workflows that support multiple languages can add significant time and costs to your project.
  • Workflows and file management: Efficient localization requires seamless integration with your existing tech stack—CMSs, CRMs, code repositories, cloud storage, customer service software, marketing tools, and more—as well as support for a wide range of file types and content formats. That’s why many teams opt to work with a purpose-built solution, rather than trying to build their own tools that end up requiring maintenance, updates, and up-front time spent creating integrations.

 

What to look for in a localization partner

Delivering an authentic user experience to a new audience is an ambitious undertaking that requires resources and key management, multilingual expertise, and continuous support. The best localization partners make this undertaking easier. Look for a partner that can integrate seamlessly with your existing setup without interfering with CI/CD pipelines or distracting you from other development projects. 

Smartling delivers exactly that. Our AI-enabled enterprise solutions deliver high-quality translations faster—and at up to 70% lower cost than traditional, human-only translation. Smartling provides built-in tools to automate content ingestion and delivery, plus tools to track and manage localization spend so you can control costs and measure ROI.

In addition to custom end-to-end localization solutions, Smartling offers more than 50 pre-built integrations with all of the most popular systems and platforms, including GitHub, WordPress, Adobe, Contentful, Sitecore, Salesforce, Hubspot, Google Drive, and a repository connector for integration with tools like Gitlab and Bitbucket. Our Global Delivery Network (GDN) translation proxy captures and translates dynamic and static web content and API responses—regardless of your tech stack or site design. Once it’s set up, the GDN continues to deliver a complete, localized experience with minimal development overhead or human intervention. 

Smartling even helps you manage translation-specific keys so you can separate localized content. Instead of one generic description field for all languages, we can help you structure keys by language (e.g., description_de for Deutsch) to help prevent ambiguity and keep your content organized as you scale. 

 

Developer-friendly technical capabilities and integration

Smartling’s localization solutions were built with developers in mind. Our enterprise-grade APIs, modern SDKs, and industry-leading automation tools integrate seamlessly into your CI/CD pipeline for fast and scalable localization. 

  • Powerful APIs: Smartling’s RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs) enable automation capabilities that support custom tooling and processes.
  • Integrated MCP server: Access Smartling’s translation capabilities directly within your dev environment or AI chat tool interface with our model context protocol (MCP) tools.
  • Innovative webhooks: Smartling’s webhooks push real-time HTTP notifications based on your event subscriptions, allowing you to trigger automated processes and build responsive integrations. For example, you can get notifications as soon as a translation job is completed in a project.
  • Smartling CLI: The Smartling command line interface (CLI) gives your dev team unmatched speed and control by letting you manage translations directly from the command line.
  • Comprehensive SDKs: Our software development kits for Java, Python, and Node.js make localization faster and easier than ever—even for mobile apps.
  • 50+ built-in connectors: Native integrations eliminate time-consuming manual tasks and streamline translation workflows from start to finish.
    • Content management systems: Contentful, WordPress, Adobe Experience Manager, Drupal, Sitecore, and more
    • Customer relationship management: Salesforce, Zendesk, and more
    • Marketing tools: Marketo, HubSpot, and more
    • Design: Figma, Adobe, Canva, and more
    • Code repositories: GitHub, plus a repository connector that works with BitBucket, Gitlab, and more
    • Cloud storage: Google Drive, Dropbox, and more
  • Broad file format support: Wide compatibility with 34 major file formats saves time, reduces errors, and accelerates localization. File formats include—but are not limited to—the following:
    • Software and web formats: JSON, XML, YAML, HTML, and Markdown
    • Mobile app strings: iOS String Catalog and Android XML
    • Documents: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs
    • Design and media: InDesign, SVG, and SRT/VTT subtitles

 

Full platform vs. point solution

While it may be tempting to turn to a point solution, it’s not a long-term answer. Think of a point solution like putting duct tape over your problem—it’s cheap and provides a quick fix, but over time it gets messy and may even fall apart as your project grows. They’re simply not designed to last.

Instead, end-to-end localization and translation solutions from Smartling give you everything you need to communicate with end users across the world. Our powerful GDN web proxy and suite of developer tools consolidate all of your content in one place—automating translation, streamlining localization, and setting you up for success—now and in the future. 

 

6 questions to ask a potential localization partner

With both technical and operational expertise, developers play a critical role in selecting the right localization partner. To help ensure the best outcomes for your project, here are some questions to ask prospective partners before implementing localization. 

 

1. Can I localize my existing keys?

It’s important that your localization partner can help you update and localize your keys in one central location.

 

2. What are your technical capabilities and integrations?

With so many tools and services available, it has become increasingly important to find systems and partnerships that work together. When it comes to localization, seamless integration with your tech stack is key. Smartling supports 50+ integrations, custom APIs, modern SDKs for mobile app development, an MCP server, and every standard file format.

 

3. How do you integrate AI into your localization solutions?

AI-enabled translation services are key to rapid, scalable localization. Automating translation workflows can deliver high-quality outputs faster and more cost effectively than ever before. However, in certain circumstances AI translations alone won’t be enough. For those cases, human subject matter experts must be available to review for grammatical accuracy, cultural idiosyncrasies, and context. 

 

4. How do you handle continuous localization and updates to existing translations?

Continuous localization ensures that your product is up-to-date and available in all supported languages. To maintain a seamless user experience, find a partner with complete integration and automation capabilities that new and updated content for translation and pulls translated content back into your tools without disrupting your workflow. 

 

5. How fast can you scale?

The right localization partner should enable you to add new languages with little intervention. Smartling’s cloud-native platform fully automates the translation process, enabling you to scale content to global audiences with minimal involvement.

 

6. What security and compliance standards do you meet?

Your localization partner should follow strict data production protocols so you can focus on what matters most: building great products. With this in mind, Smartling adheres to the highest industry standards to protect your data, including SOC 2, PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, HITRUST, and ISO compliance. 

 

Localization for the long term

As your organization grows, localization can help you transcend language and cultures, engaging with all-new audiences in a way that feels completely natural. But localization is inherently complex. With the right partner, it doesn’t have to be. Often, localization touches your entire tech stack—your CMS, your code repositories, your cloud apps, even your creative platforms. In this way, it’s more just a one-off project to translate your content; it’s a continuous, involved process, which is why teams often benefit so much from tools that support automation, integrations, and AI. 

When you work with Smartling, we ensure that your brand voice, user experience, and cultural context are preserved across languages. Whether you’re translating 10 pages or 10 million text strings, we combine the best of AI and human expertise to deliver high-quality translations that streamline the localization process. 

Maximize your time, delight new audiences, accelerate market entry—and so much more. 

Ready to get started? Book a meeting with Smartling.

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